Honda Racing in the thick of the action at Brands Hatch
Making its first appearance of the 2025 season on the Brands Hatch GP circuit in Kent, the Honda Racing team has enjoyed a competitive start to the weekend in both the Bennetts British Superbike Championship (BSB) and Quattro British Supersport Championship classes.
This weekend, the team’s four riders across the two classes have also been joined by 23-time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness MBE, who is racing a Honda Fireblade in the Superstock class under the Honda Racing UK banner.
The BSB team saw Tommy Bridewell and Andrew Irwin honing the performance of their Fireblades to the undulating Brands Hatch circuit through Friday’s Free Practice sessions. The fruits of these sessions were seen on Saturday morning, when Bridewell set the third fastest time with Irwin in fourth.
The Qualifying session saw light rain and a significant drop in temperatures confront the riders, with Bridewell taking a second row starting position for the first race, in sixth place, while Irwin qualified 11th.
These would also be the positions in which the riders took the chequered flag at the end of the first 20-lap encounter. Bridewell settled quickly into a rhythm and was able to maintain the gap to his nearest pursuer. Irwin meanwhile charged up to eighth by the mid-point of the race, but then fell back to 11th after a few minor issues took hold.
In Supersport, defending champion Jack Kennedy qualified his Honda CBR600RR in second place for the first race on Saturday afternoon. His five-time Isle of Man TT-winning team mate Dean Harrison claimed ninth place on the grid.
At the start of the race, Kennedy got away cleanly into the early lead, slipped back to second and then retook the lead before crashing out in the treacherous conditions. Harrison’s race was less dramatic, finishing in ninth place but securing sixth fastest lap time to start race 2 from the second row of the grid.
In his solo Superstock weekend, meanwhile, McGuinness meanwhile ran strongly throughout the Free Practice sessions. In qualifying for the race in 12th position, he comfortably beat his previous personal best ever lap time at the circuit, then rode a sensible race in damp but drying conditions to reach the finish in 14th place.
Tommy Bridewell
“Tough race for sure. I expected and wanted to have the pace to fight for the podium but I’m just still struggling with the bike to be honest. Just an immense amount of wheelie, really struggling with stopping the bike and rear grip. There’s not one specific area, it’s across all areas, so we need to go back to the drawing board for tomorrow, regroup and try again. I would prefer a dry race because at the minute we need dry track time and our testing has to be over a race weekend, which is not ideal, but it’s where we find ourselves. If it’s wet we’ll deal with it.”
Andrew Irwin
“I felt good for three-quarters of the race, and we started to get closer to the group in front. Then I just ran into a couple of little problems the last few laps, but hopefully we can find a resolution for tomorrow and look forward to tomorrow’s two races. It was a little bit all over everywhere with the weather before the start, but it was a dry race. I think my lap time was a tenth off my best in qualifying, and I’m pleased with my pace, so I think tomorrow we can go forward from there.”
Jack Kennedy
“It was probably my best start in the last two years on the bike, really, so I was quite happy with that, but it was so greasy, it was like riding on eggshells or marbles or ice… or all three together. But I think everyone was in the same boat, though. Ben (Currie) got away at the start and I tried to just settle into it and get some sort of feel. I managed to peg him back and then got to the lead but unfortunately took the front in the tricky conditions into Graham Hill Bend. It’s given the lads in the team a lot of work to do for tomorrow repairing the bike. We’ve got a really mixed up grid for tomorrow so it’ll be an interesting one to watch.”
Dean Harrison
“I think we had the worst conditions of the day, to be honest! We had a little issue before the start, the battery went flat I think, so we were really lucky that the boys were able to get the bike started and we could get on the grid. I was struggling, it was really greasy, but we sort of got quicker as the race went on and we moved up to start sixth on row two tomorrow so all in all it was a reasonable day.”
John McGuinness MBE
“I’m really happy to have my personal best lap time at Brands Hatch, and to finish in the points at my first BSB weekend of this season. It was a brilliant start but I got nipped a bit at Turn 1 and I thought: ‘oh, this is not going to be good!’ But we got away with it. I’ve done loads of riding - testing before the start of the year, track days and instructing as well as competing at the North West 200 and TT. But this is very different and you’ve got to dig deep and pull yourself out of your comfort zone. To be here enjoying my riding, and working with my kids on the team, and to be in the mix with some spicy riders has fully ticked all the boxes for me. I shall go home a happy man.”
Team Manager Havier Beltran
“An awful lot of work has been done over the first two days, and it’s slightly frustrating in some ways that the weather played such a wild card today. That said, it was the same for everyone and I think Tommy rode well through the challenges, with Andrew’s pace being impressively close to his in the race. Jack has a bigger job to do tomorrow now, but he knows when and how to dig deep, while it will be good to see Dean starting further up the grid tomorrow. And of course John has done what he has consistently done this year: beaten his own records and enjoyed competing at the highest level.”
Bennetts British Superbike Championship 2025
Round 5, Qualifying
Bennetts British Superbike Championship 2025
Round 5, Race 1
